Gloria Romero, former CA State Senator and former CA State Senate Majority Leader, speaks out in this stinging investigative report which shows how powerful the special interests are, even at the expense of the safety of our children from sexual predators.
According to Maplight, the four Democrat Senators in the powerful Education Committee who abstained from voting, which is the equivalent of a no vote in this case, included Wilmer Carter of Rialto who according to Maplight has received $7000 from the CTA since 2009 (she sold out for the cheapest price), Mike Eng of Alhambra who has received $18,000 since 2009, Betsy Butler of El Segundo who has received $11,000 from the CTA since 2009, and Das Williams of Santa Barbara, who has received over $30,000 since 2009.

SB 1530, proposed by state Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, was introduced in response to the sex-abuse scandals at Miramonte Elementary and other campuses in Los Angeles Unified. It would have streamlined the process for terminating teachers in cases involving sex, drugs and violence against children.

The measure was supported by Los Angeles Unified officials, including several board members who testified during the hearing. However, the powerful California Teachers Association, as well as United Teachers Los Angeles, lobbied against it, saying it would have violated due process for teachers.

The vote of the 11-member committee was 5-2, with four abstentions. The measure needed six votes to advance.

How bold are the reformers? How firm do they stand? Or are they waiting, hoping, and prodding, but do not want to upset the establishment? Do they support the tax increases as necessary for real education reform?

“The nation is watching this evening. California is watching,” said former California state Senator Gloria Romero, who co-sponsored the legislation.

Excerpt:
The outcome of Wednesday’s meeting marked the second time the Adelanto board has denied a petition submitted by families seeking a takeover, finding they fell short in collecting valid signatures from parents representing at least half of the 642 students at Desert Trails Elementary.

The petition drive has been fraught with acrimony as the two sides accused each other of fraud and forgery in trying to meet the 50-percent threshold or in presenting rescission affidavits from parents who claimed they were misled into initially giving their support.

“I could care less if I don’t get elected to office again, but today I stand for all of Adelanto in saying we will not be duped by anybody,” school board member Jermaine Wright said in explaining her vote against the petition. March 28, 2012

Even after a second rejection, it appeared the debate in Adelanto, a community of about 31,000 people made up predominantly of low-income minorities, was far from over.

We’ll talk with Romero about the initiative called You Have Choice! What is it? Who is behind it? Who should know about it? Why do we need this program? What’s at stake? What is possible?Ben Boychuk who can’t make it tonight has submitted his own list of questions to ask Romero, including her thoughts on vouchers as part of a support for parental choice, and more.

This program focuses greatly on public policy and sound economic policy. Education makes up the largest percentage of public sector spending in CA, and yet we rank near the bottom in reading and math, and have done so for decades, with little improvement. The National Education Association claims CA spends near the bottom of all 50 states on Education. In 2010, the OCReg had CA per pupil spending on Education at 23rd. It dropped in one year, as a result of cutbacks, but is 42nd out of 50 accurate, and does this number reflect the amount of tax revenue collected and spent via bonds voters continue to eagerly pass because of their deep commitment to public education? And could we do better with less money?

I am a stand for liberty, freedom and prosperity for all people; a stand for vibrant and innovative small businesses that create jobs, that in the process of prospering, nurture and support creative and dynamic culture, in the work place, and in our personal lives. Thank you for supporting our program, by listening, sponsoring, and or sharing this post with others. It’s a pleasure to share this program with CalWatchDog’s team of government policy watch dogs and the great investigative work they produce! Tuesday nights live, on Gadfly Radio in Southern California or where ever you are. California, the land of beauty and unlimited possibility because of the abundance of our greatest capital resource, our human resources, when we get it right. Join us. Or you can listen to a podcast later, if you miss the live call-in show by clicking on the white player to stream or the orange player to download and or subscribe to Gadfly on iTunes:

Live Call in number: 1-818-602-4929August 30, 2011 Tonight live at 8PM PT: Tonight on Gadfly Radio, Ben Boychuk of CA City Journaljoins me as we talk with John Seiler of CalWatchDog.com. Dave Bailey, a current businessman who lives in the City of Fullerton, CA and is former police officer with the Los Angeles Port Police Department, joins us to discuss the due process lag in the case of the fatal beating of 38 year old, 135 pound schizophrenic homeless man, Kelly Thomas, at the hands of six Fullerton Police Officers who have since been put on paid leave, but whom have not been charged for any crime since the beating occurred on July 5th of 2011.

Given the current law and precedent established by the CA Supreme Court in August of 2006, in Copley v. Superior Court, is it possible to get due process and justice when the alleged criminals are police officers?

In a recent article posted at CalWatchdog involving Assemblyman Portantino, D-La Cañada, and his current stand for transparency concerning the CA State Legislators’ personal budgets, Steve Greenhut referred to a CA Supreme Court Case decision in August of 2006, and a subsequent bipartisan effort by some lawmakers in Sacramento, led by then Senator Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, to overturn the effects of that decision with SB 1019, which Portantino played a role to defeat.

The Tracy Press described it this way in an article titled Bill puts cops in the sunshine “Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, authored Senate Bill 1019 after the August 2006 state Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court, which prevents the public from learning about law enforcement officers who have been disciplined for misconduct, even if the law enforcement agency wants the public to know the findings. The door has been slammed shut on the misconduct hearings and all their records. It’s so extreme that local police officials cannot even tell citizens that a disciplinary hearing happened.”

California’s “Jobs Gap” with the rest of America jumped to a record high, according to new calculations. In 2010,[John Seiler] devised the “Jobs Gap” to measure how much worse unemployment is in California that the rest of America.

We’ll take your calls, questions and comments on the air at 1-818-602-4929.

I am a stand for liberty, freedom and prosperity for all people; a stand for vibrant and innovative small businesses that create jobs, that in the process of prospering, nurture and support creative and dynamic culture, in the work place, and in our personal lives.

Thank you for supporting our program, by listening, sponsoring, and or sharing this post with others.

It’s a pleasure to share this program with CalWatchDog’s team of government policy watch dogs and the great investigative work they produce!

Tuesday nights live, on Gadfly Radio in Southern California or where ever you are. California, the land of beauty and unlimited possibility because of the abundance of our greatest capital resource, our human resources, when we get it right. Join us.

Or you can listen to a podcast later, if you miss the live call-in show by clicking on the white player to stream or the orange player to download and or subscribe to Gadfly on iTunes:

Senator Gloria Romero joins Gadfly Radio next Tuesday, July 12, at 8PM, on the eve she boards a bus with 150 parents, to Sacramento, to speak before the CA State Board of Education, regarding her request for State Board of Education member, Patricia Rucker recuse herself from any deliberations or board decision regarding The Parent Trigger. Join us!

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The status quo of education in the U.S. is destructive to our Nation, and to ignore this truth is to be numb, unconscious or in denial of reality.

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge. Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament."--A Nation At Risk - April 1983

Drug War Clock for Current Year

Police arrested an estimated 858,408 persons for cannabis violations in 2009. Of those charged with cannabis violations, approximately 89 percent were charged with possession only.
Source: Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation Your tax dollars at work--but for whom?

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Dedicated to considerations of justice and the pursuit of goodness… "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth." --Plato on Socrates